The alchemical journey begins with our own development and awakening, but it does not end there. Like the Grail as Quest, it is an individual quest that is also about the community as a whole. There is a wounded king who suffers; society is fallen and in disarray; and the grail quest is about that larger restoration or renewal. It turns out to be not so much about me as it is about us. Realizing this is also turning the power toward Earth.
Ultimately, the alchemical process of working with light is not only individual; it does not take place in one’s own mind alone. Nor does it only involve a small group. The process is within us, but also beyond us as individuals. It is intimately personal, but it is also cosmological— that is, it engages the fundamental principles inherent in the cosmos. Regeneration, the restoration of the primordial, archaic state of purity, transmutes our fallen nature and also the fallen nature of the cosmos.
This was well understood by the ancients. Archaic Europe’s sacred places, standing stones, cairns, and dolmens each have their specific light alignments, marking the movement of the Sun, the Moon, or specific constellations and stars. The stones in all their configurations mark the intersections of space and time by light. This light is eternal and temporal at once, both in time and beyond time, symbolized in the instantaneous bolt of lightning from above to below, in vertical standing stones, and later in stone columns.
The archaic European culture of stone and light was shared, first by the local community near the stones, second by those in the region, and third by the underlying broader culture across Europe and into Asia that is still visible wherever the stones are still standing. What was the purpose of this underlying archaic culture? To turn the power toward Earth, to align human, natural, and celestial with one another so that the human and natural worlds flourish.
Whenever you enter an area with megaliths, including cairns, you will often hear the folklore that says to take from the area of the stones or to damage the stones will bring about misfortune, bring upon you what we could call the curse of the stones. There is often a lingering fear of the archaic standing stones, a sense that they are a little other-worldly, numinous, and this protected them over the millennia. It also signals that there is more to the stones’ presence than meets the eye.
What do the grail stone, the philosopher’s stone, and the megaliths have in common? The power to transmute, to regenerate. While it may take a long time to find the grail stone or the philosopher’s stone or the stone circle, their power of transmutation is itself immediate, like a lightning bolt flashing from sky to Earth. A fallen world and darkness and then—light!
Revelation of the archaic original and pure state, revelation of paradise, this is the hidden meaning of the sentinel stones like those that still keep watch over Britain, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, and that still work their magic. They stand guard now, as they have for millennia, integrating the moving patterns of cosmic light in nature with the human world. Their silent watch reminds us that a balanced, spiritual way of being beckons not only to us as individuals, but also to us as a nascent community, as a living culture.
SHARED TRANSFORMATION
Alchemical lightwork is not only about us as individuals. It is about archaic knowledge and about what is greater than ourselves, beyond us. It is also about harmony between the human, natural, and spiritual realms—and about this Earth in relation to paradisal Earth. There is a very archaic Central Asian tradition in which, when someone died, a shaman would, with a bird wing, waft the deceased’s soul into a stone, where it would remain until the deceased could be guided through a perilous passage to paradisal Earth, the Earth of celestial light.
Put another way, turning power toward Earth reveals power beyond Earth. Although we think that the otherworld and this physical world are completely distinct, that isn’t really true. It’s an illusion. As William Law* and Jacob Böhme made clear, after death the soul doesn’t “go” anywhere. Rather, its nature is revealed and experienced in whatever stage it finds itself. The otherworld is present now, but we aren’t able to see it as it actually is.
Turning power toward Earth isn’t necessarily something we do as an individual, but rather is a description of how, in the right conditions, flourishing is possible because inherent spiritual reality can manifest as it actually is. We forget that nature wants to flourish. People want to flourish. They yearn to do so. Turning power toward Earth means creating the conditions not only for us as individuals to flourish but for nature and community to do so as well.
One purpose of the standing stones and other megaliths, according to author John Michell, was to cast a spell of protection and prosperity over a region, marking with light the hidden pathways and dimensions of the spiritual landscape so that the people could flourish. This is also thought to be the purpose behind the ancient legendary island of Atlantis and of the mythical island kingdoms off the coast. Of course, Atlantis degenerated and collapsed, and perhaps things are not ideal in every way in the few remaining redoubts on Earth. Even in the kingdom of Bhutan, like anywhere else, people have conflicts, are fooled or are foolish, seek power, or are subject to whatever other human foibles any of us might be prey to or could imagine. And yet . . . they prove a different way of life is possible.
We do not have to live in a disenchanted, desolate world as atomized, nihilistic, cultureless individuals. We can engage in a quest. We can become better people. We can begin to explore and understand the mysteries of being human in a natural world full of mysteries. We can engage in the great adventure of our spiritual journey.
Photo by Mihail Tregubov
By Arthur Versluis
